1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable apparatus including a notebook, a PDA, a radiotelegraph, an MP3 player, a PMP, a cellular phone, a smart phone, etc., and in particular to a sliding device of the portable apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a portable apparatus needs be light and compact for convenient portability. As the multimedia is introduced in today's environment, functions such as video call, game play, VOD, TV broadcasting, or the like, as well as the traditional voice call and short message transmission are desired. To this end, a portable apparatus enabling the watching of various-mode contents has been developed.
In the UI environment related to the input/output of the data, it is convenient to view an image when the image is displayed on the wide display unit and operate the key using larger and numerous keys in the wide keypad.
In order to satisfy the demands of the user, the portable apparatus can be classified into a bar-type, a folder-type, and a sliding-type. In particular, due to the advantage in mounting the wide display unit and the wide keypad unit, the development of the widthwise sliding-type portable apparatus has prevailed over the lengthwise sliding-type portable apparatus.
The widthwise sliding-type portable apparatus generally includes a main body and a sliding body slidably coupled to the main body, in which the main body includes the keypad and the sliding body includes the display unit. The widthwise sliding-type portable apparatus has a structure in which the keypad is opened/closed according to the sliding of the sliding body, and a sliding device is formed between the main body and the sliding body, so that the main body is connected with the sliding body.
However, the conventional widthwise sliding-type portable apparatus has a plurality of keys, e.g. keys arranged in a QWERTY key array, arranged on the main body, and includes the sliding device, so that there is a limitation in the sliding excursion of the sliding body and in an arrangement region of the keypad unit. That is, a region size for mounting the keypad unit decreases and consequently, the size of each key becomes smaller and inconvenient for the key operation, e.g. pressing or touching the keys.
Further, the conventional widthwise sliding-type portable apparatus includes a flexible circuit for electrically connecting the main body with the sliding body. However, the flexible circuit is directly exposed to an external environment which in turn becomes a cause for deterioration in long run.